No Way To Escape | Novel

CHAPTER 22: EULOGY

About a hundred and a twenty people from Larry's friends, family and acquaintance had gathered together that day at the Saint Lawrence Cathedral to attend the funeral of Larry.

I had to leave an important meeting that day for the sepulture, for the first time in my job. Dressed in formal attire with an all-black suit, I was accompanied by our fellow college batch mates alongwith Fred and Bob as we entered into the cathedral.

The atmosphere was utterly despondent in there. Larry's family members were already present there and all of them looked dejected.

Hymns were being sung by the cathedral choir, one after another in succession, continuously.

The hymn - Here I am Lord was being played when we all entered which was soon followed by Down to the river to pray.

'Oh my son', said Uncle Pete in anguish as I went to him to offer my condolences. He embraced me tightly which made me feel the pain of a father who had lost his young as such a tender age.

'Oh Uncle Pete... everything will come back to normal. Just pray for the peaceful departure of Larry's soul from this materialistic world', I said to comfort him. Then I offered my condolences to Aunt Mary and Tresa as they too could not hold their sob. My father was also present there. I hugged him.

'I have been missing you so much, dad'

'Me too, son'

After that we all went back to get seated on the benches. Soon the proceedings of the funeral started.

After some formal speeches from Father Charlie, scriptures were read which were followed by reading of psalms :-

Revelation 21:4

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

John 14:1

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me."

Joshua 1:9

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

.....

After psalm readings and other such formal proceedings, it was now time for the eulogies.

First of all it were the family members who offered their eulogies.

The words of Aunt Mary were the most painful ones. That day I got to see a different side of Tresa as she spoke out of her feelings for her beloved brother. Till then I had never seen Tresa be somehow emotionally attached to her brother. They always used to fight with each other.

Then it was the turn of his friends. When my turn came, I got up and walked slowly up to the dias and took out my paper of speech.

'First of all ..um.. I would like to thank everyone for being here to help Larry's family and friends celebrate his life. I remember how I met him for the first time in our school. Although that memory has faded all through these years but still I can recall some moments'

'So... He was in hurry to pee and was constantly knocking the lavatory door and asking who was inside without getting any reply'. I snickered. 'I went closer to him. He was holding his pants as if his patience was just gonna break. What I did was just opened the latch of the door, which he had ignored in his fit of urgency. He rushed inside banging the door on my face and I just stood there laughing my heart out'.

There were few muffled chuckles in the crowd.

'He came out after some time, blushing of course, being embarrassed in front of a stranger. Oh, at that time we were kids, moreover. So you can all understand the embarrassment', I said with a smile.

'I always admired his sense of humor. An enthusiast person, a terrible dancer who always used to make us all laugh with his slapstick presence. The first time when we all had a college reunion, he almost fell off the stage in his madness of dancing'

'We always had shared a great bond of friendship, a relationship which is beyond words for me to explain'

'His lively presence is unforgettable for me. Once I had lost some dollar in my new found business. I was very disappointed and had almost isolated myself. Then it was Larry who took me to The Murph's and let me drink 5 glasses of smoothie with his money and everything came back to normal. It was 3 years ago by the way'. My eyes were moist by now.

'I was still a novice regarding the newly installed water control system back in the 90's in our new house. That day, dad had planned a casual party for some of his friends and I had called in Larry to join us too. Fred was also there. What happened was- we didn't know that the tap had an automatic ejection system. Larry and I had a habit of playing down at the cellar. So what happened was, while playing there we somehow could not close the flow of water from the central bathroom tap which remained open by us accidentally. Panicked, we ran out of there, locking the door. Dad did not have any clue about it. When the guests arrived, my mom told him that the water was not coming in the kitchen. Worried, my dad went on to check the central bathroom. He saw a stream of water coming out from within the room. On opening the door, all the water that had been gathered over there rushed onto him. He laid out a yell that shook the house. When he confronted us, he was completely drenched. Larry, Fred and I could not help but cackle at that. And then, that night became a nightmare for me' 

My dad winked at me.

Nightmare!

'While we were still knitting together all the beautiful memories, it was almost unimaginable that you would-'. I sighed. 'Larry, you don't know how much I miss you. Whenever I remember our old days, I just ca- can't...'. I could not control myself anymore.

'...I just can't come to the te--terms that you are not...'. I sniffled and then continued, '... not anymore with us'

Suppressing tears had now became impossible for me. I cried, but tried to subdue it.

'That's it. I wanted to continue and share more of our memories but my emotions are not allowing me to speak anymore', I sniveled.

'I will always love you and we all will always miss you, Larry. Rest in peace, my friend'

With this I left the podium and walked down to my place where I had been seated. The eulogies went on till another hour or so and then all of us prepared for the burial.

One by one we laid down wreathe on Larry's coffin and carried it up to the burial site behind the Cathedral, to The Stanley Cemetery. The atmosphere was gloomier there. The Hughes family burst into tears and I could see Aunt Mary was inconsolable. I walked up to her and hugged her saying, 'Don't worry, aunt...'. I backed away a bit and holding her face in my hands, I said, 'Everything will get better. Don't let him go seeing you in such a baby crying face'. She held me tightly then and we both looked at the coffin as it was buried down into the earth.